If you're a filmmaker or just like to have family videos that don't evoke The Blair Witch Project you may be interested in acquiring a shoulder mount to stabilize your DSLR camera when shooting videos. You can spend a lot of money buying a rig or build one with $25 in hardware store parts.

Instructables user benfloom assembled his shoulder rig design after his frustration at not being able to find a commercial version below $200. For this project you'll need threaded steel rod, nuts, washers, aluminum flashing, foam pipe insulation, thumb screws, wing nuts, bolts, and a few small pieces of lumber.

The source link below gives you an exact list of what you need along with additional photos and instructions, but what you're basically doing is building the frame of the shoulder rig with the wood and steel rod using nuts, bolts, and thumb screws to keep everything adjustable. The aluminum flashing and foam pipe insulation will make the shoulder mount. The author plans to expand the shoulder rig with mounts for lights and a sound recorder.

If you're just looking for stabilization you can build a smaller DIY shoulder camera stabilizer that we featured two years ago. It's less adjustable but more portable.